Steven Read's adventures as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Canada Edmonton Mission.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012!

It is officially 2012! Sorry we couldn't email yesterday because the library was closed.....? We still aren't sure why haha. So Sunday started my golden (or black) year depending on who you talk to haha. It's gonna be sweet! This week has been pretty crazy. Like I said last week my new companion is Elder Wood. We get along well and he's a hard worker which is all I could ask. It's weird being the one who knows where everything is and who to visit though, because I definitely don't know where everything is or who to visit haha. I'm getting used to it though and things are going well. It's weird switching companions! I'm so used to Elder Merrell haha and so it's weird having someone else living with me. Elder Wood sleep talks! He woke me up one night yelling gibberish! It scared the crap out of me haha. I've heard stories from other missionaries that he sleep walks too :) I'm excited! He's a great guy though I really like him. He's from Idaho Falls, Idaho and he's been out a year tomorrow actually, so he knows what he's doing. Church is now at 1pm, which is terrible for a number of reasons. First and foremost being that we have to work in the mornings on Sunday, which is pretty ineffective. When I was with Elder Merrell we had 2 hour comp studies because I was new, and so we didn't leave the apartment until noon after lunch. Now we study until 10am and then work until lunch, but no one's awake until noon around here! It's ridiculous. But we do what we gotta do. The one advantage to 1pm church is that it's a million times easier trying to get investigators to church because most people are awake by then. We still only have one investigator, who we're extremely grateful for, but we need more! We have done so much tracting in the past 2 weeks it's amazing to look at the tracting map we have on our wall. I think we honestly might have this area tracted out in the next two transfers haha. I like tracting though because I always come away with sweet stories and you meet interesting people. Plus it's good practice. So no complaints. The weather has been amazing. Canadians everywhere are in a frenzy because we actually had a positive Christmas! And today it's above freezing! January's are apparently around -20 C, so the fact that we've only had that temperature once a month ago is amazing. But I'm perfectly with it. As long as I'm walking all of the snow could melt and I would be completely unopposed. Which brings me to the other shocker! There's almost no snow on the ground. But, like I said before, as long as I'm walking it can stay that way. Hey Mom! Thanks for the package it was awesome. Those socks are perfect and I really needed them actually. I've been meaning to go buy wool socks but now I don't have to which is fine by me! That blanket is sweet too haha. I never knew how much I wanted an electric blanket until I got one! It's awesome. So thanks for sending all of that stuff it was great. So going back to the weather, I haven't seen the sun in like 2 weeks. It comes about halfway (if that) up and then goes down by 3:30, and it's dark by about 4:30. But I never see the sun! It's so flat here and I'm surrounded by houses so I miss it! Like I said before though they have us all on Vitamin D so we don't die. Speaking of dying, there is a CRAZY 24-hour flu going around here. It's incredible how much it's spread. On Christmas Eve, we were at an older couple's house and they had all of their family over. One of their granddaughters got sick with the flu and was sick the whole time. Then the mom got sick, the son soon followed, and then the next day at church none of the family was there and there were about 15 people in that house that night. THEN, Elder Merrell got sick on Monday, THEN one of the YSA sisters threw up at a member's house on Wednesday hahaha. THEN two Elders in our district got sick on the same day. Haha we were in District Meeting and Elder Phillips got up to say the prayer. We heard "Father in Heaven......" and then we all looked up and he was running out of the room haha it's crazy! THEN one of the families in our ward didn't come to church because they had it. THEN our dinner appointment last night cancelled on us because they all had it. It's only a matter of time until we're all infected! I've never seen something spread like this it's actually kind of fun haha. OH! AND one of our appointments cancelled on us yesterday. Haha it's weird! New Year's was pretty boring hahaha. We had dinner with a member and then we had to be in our apartment by 6. So I sat and wrote a few letters and then went to bed at 8pm haha. We got like 10 hours of sleep it was beautiful. But yeah, that's pretty much all that's happened around here. It's been interesting, but a lot of fun too. We have some sweet Elders in our district and we've been having a lot of fun. We went over to the Meadows Elder's apartment last night and ate dinner with them, and we're probably going to lunch today! Missions are the best. You feel the spirit stronger than any other time of your life, you get to see people change, and most of all you get to party with other missionaries! Haha just kidding, but seriously it's a lot of fun. I've seen myself change as well and it's amazing to see. I've strengthened my testimony so much and it grows every day. It's awesome. Hey I'm gonna learn guitar on my mission! One of the members is going to find me a cheap guitar and I'm gonna learn chords dang it! One sweet thing about a mission is that you have a lot of down time at night, and you can only write in your journal for so long. So I've learned how to juggle and play with a yo-yo haha. Guitar's next! But anyways I'm doing well and I'm having a lot of fun. I'm glad to hear everything's going well back home and that you guys had a good Christmas! Mom I miss going to the temple with you every week! That was awesome. We get to go quarterly (if that) and I miss it! Anyways, that's all I've got, I love you guys have a good week!